They’re paid handsomely to take risks in a job that isn’t all that risky from an actuarial perspective. So then they take the money while the union obsesses about “officer safety” and negotiates bizarro-world standards for “feeling threatened” as somehow justifies the use of deadly force.
The police officers I’ve seen at O’Hare were armed to the teeth (and rather mean-looking). So these guys and gals are probably the ones giving directions to lost travelers.